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Franchise dispute may clip Wild Wing's opening

Wild Wing Cafe is slated to open June 23 in the old Malone's site in City Market.

A lawsuit threatens to delay the opening of a City Market restaurant just a week before it is scheduled to start serving up plates of hot wings and buckets of beer.

Workers were busy Wednesday transforming the old Malone's at 27 Barnard St. into the Wild Wing Cafe, a sports bar franchise with two dozen locations throughout the Southeast.

But according to a lawsuit filed last week in Chatham County Superior Court, that transformation has run behind schedule and over its already-large budget.

Denise McBroom, a partner in the venture, has sued William Cecil Crowley, president of the Wild Wing franchising company, claiming he has illegally reduced her take in the restaurant and kept her in the dark on key decisions.

The restaurant space, considered an anchor to the City Market retail development, has sat empty since October 2004, when landlord City Market Partners evicted the sports bar Malone's amidst a bitter legal battle that continues to this day.

Wild Wing was supposed to open last September, but work dragged, and renovation and start-up costs jumped from $1.5 million to almost $2.3 million, according to McBroom's lawsuit.

When a revised opening deadline was blown in May, City Market Partners declared the restaurant in default of its lease and assessed a $75,000 delay fee.

"Such default ... places the City Market franchise in serious jeopardy," McBroom said in the suit.

Still, both McBroom in court papers and the Wild Wing Cafe on its Web site are optimistic the restaurant will open June 23, featuring the high-powered pop of local band Liquid Ginger.

McBroom, a former physician's assistant, claims her plans to open a Wild Wing Cafe were moving along in 2004: She signed a franchise agreement with the Mt. Pleasant, S.C.-based company, paid her $30,000 franchise fee, attended training and began seeking financing from the bank.

Then in October her real estate agent discovered that the Malone's site was available.

Crowley, who with his wife opened the first Wild Wing in Hilton Head 16 years ago, suddenly became very interested in this franchise and its high-profile location. It was expected to be the chain's largest restaurant to date.

According to the lawsuit, he offered to reimburse half McBroom's franchise fee and secure all financing in exchange for a 60 percent stake in the venture.

McBroom accepted in early 2005, and Crowley took out a $1.5 million loan for renovations.

From then on, she claims, her new partner has hijacked the operations: He omitted her name from a new lease, wouldn't share renovation plans and replaced her as the registered agent on incorporation papers. And he stopped returning her calls, she contends.

She said he wouldn't even reimburse half the franchise fee as promised.

The cold shoulder continued through March of this year, when she said Crowley told her costs had run over, and he would have to borrow another $800,000 from the bank.

McBroom was told she would have to come up with $100,000. Her 40 percent share would be reduced to 10 percent, she claims.

If she couldn't pay the money, she was told, she would get just 1 percent of the franchise.

She is asking for damages, for a judge to decide who gets what share of the restaurant and for an injunction preventing Wild Wing Cafe from opening until everything is resolved.

A detailed message left for Crowley's Charleston attorney went unreturned Wednesday.

McBroom's attorney, William Glass, said his client's hope is that all will be settled in time for next week's opening.

"For what it's worth, the parties to this lawsuit are also the owners of the business and everyone involved anticipates it will be a tremendous success," Glass said. "The parties just want to make sure they're all square in terms of the business arrangement before it does open."

ABOUT THE WILD WING CAFE

With about two dozen locations throughout the southeast, including one in Bluffton, S.C. and one on Hilton Head Island S.C., the restaurant chain features buffalo wings, burgers and chicken sandwiches. For more information, go online to www.wildwingcafe.com